My previous blog described the fish rescue of all of the Koi in the 5000 gallon pond, which will be followed by the same thing happening in the 6000 gallon and Goldfish ponds on the 28th of this month. Some of those large Koi will be donated to Zilker Botanical Gardens here in Austin, Texas to replace the fish they lost. Nice to know that they will give much pleasure to a lot of people in the general public.
As it happens, when I got back to the Eagle, I discovered that there were several leaks in the plumbing resulting in us having to rough it and literally camp out for a couple of days. These leaks were partly caused by running out of propane during the recent freeze and losing heat. I don’t know but I get the feeling that even if I had been here, I might not have prevented it from happening as the freeze was that severe and RV plumbing is not built to withstand such temperatures. When the storm was at it’s highest, the roads were impassable and there was no way that I could even make the trip especially as my truck with the 4 wheel drive, was in the shop. . Not sure how my neighbors here in the Park fared and if any of them had any damage.
My next door house neighbor, Michael, turns out, not only owns an RV but he works on them. He is also one of those that checked on me during the freeze and brought me food and water in case I needed it so I gave him a call for help. He very obligingly came out to the RV and began a systematic check to find the problem. The first was in the gooseneck faucet in the sink which was barely running. and was leaking water all over the wood floor. Now Michael is a very large older gentleman who is looking to retire from his business and yet, by laying on the floor, he managed contort himself and reach back in to where the gooseneck was situated. He had already decided that it was the cause of the problem. The next day, after a trip to Crestview for a new gooseneck, he came back and finished installing the unit. That cured that particular leak but as he had just left, I discovered that the toilet was running continuously and would not switch off. I called him and he turned around and came back to take a look. Again, it required parts which he got the next day and although I was not there having a Dentists appointment, went ahead and repaired that problem.
Silly me, thinking that all of our plumbing problems were a thing of the past. I went out yesterday and discovered water dripping from under the RV. With a little experimentation of turning off water and after filling the 20 gallon onboard water tank, I figured that as long as the water was shut off at the main, it would not leak and as I still had water in the freshwater tank, I could get by. All this meant was that I would have to keep an eye on the water levels in this tank and turn the hose on occasionally to top it up. Just like if I was boon docking. The onboard pump and the heater appear to be working just fine so there is water pressure and hot water. I called Michael and he said he would be out later today but as it is raining, maybe not. As it happens, he did show up just as it was getting dark and after taking a look underneath the RV and making a couple of adjustments to release some built up water, he moved back to check in the storage compartment where he had access to the pump. Turns out that pump was damaged by the frost after all and although still working, is leaking when under pressure. Michael left and promised he would be back tomorrow although with it being a Sunday, was not sure that Crestview would be open and have a new pump available.
A lot of this stuff I can do but RV plumbing is all new to me and I need time to learn the intricacies of the system. Watching Michael work is showing me where things are located and what to look for in the future although, I hope that it will not be necessary. That plus it is much harder to contort my body to reach the difficult places means that sometimes, I have to rely on others to make these repairs. All it takes is money and friends.
Sandy took Mikey and me for a walk this afternoon. This time, we explored one of the roads outside of the RV park and covered around a couple of miles. It’s pretty quiet out there and except for encountering one dog on the other side of the fenced in yard and two trucks that passed us in opposite directions. we had the road to ourselves. We walk around the park for the morning walk as that is just to let the dogs relieve themselves. Oher dog owners are out there all doing the same thing. Usually, I am half asleep and kinda stumble along as Sandy decides where we are going. I did notice that there has been a lot of trailer movement with a several empty campsites. The new section looks almost complete and is already accommodating RV’s, most of them pretty big. It’s been very windy here for the past few days with some quite powerful gusts, enough to rock the RV. I can understand how easy they can be to overturn in a real windstorm. So high and built so light and only a few points of contact with the ground. I spent some time messing around with the TV setup which is by Furrion. I think the actual TV is a bit outdated and is not an HGTV as it only gets a limited number of bloody awful channels even with the roof antennae. A lot of old Westerns and ancient comedies and a couple of Hispanic channels. As I am not conversant in the language, I can’t watch them either. I have a couple of Roku sticks but couldn’t get them to work nor could I get my computer to transmit to the big screen. I guess the TV is outdated technology and I need to bring at least one of the two modern ones from the house. Won’t need them there anymore anyway.
Not sure how I will handle it when we finally get on the road. Other than the hope of making it back to New York State to see my family, I have no real plans or desires. By the time I get on the road, it may be too late to make that trip as I definitely do not want to be anywhere North come wintertime. I could stay anywhere for a month or a couple of weeks or just a couple of days at the different and various campsites. A lot depends on what future plans I have in regards to travelling. I would prefer to not drive everyday and will just have to play things by ear. As that is still a a couple of month off, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Incidentally, today is one of those rainy and dismal grey days that make you want to curl up with the blankets over your head in a nice warm bed. Both me and the dogs.
Written 3/13/2021